A Longing Fulfilled
by bahaghari
Summary: Like so, she danced as though she's a harem dancer, writhing, spinning, and then she stopped. She faced south, towards freedom... freedom from the shackles of harlotry.


"By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient"  
—Hebrews 11:31 NIV

* * *

Let me serve thee a proper caveat. This, a story of a reclaimed courtesan. No obscenities herein but the brutal realities of a prostitute are present. Tread with eyes wide open and care. Thou art warned.

_**A Longing Fulfilled**_

_**-**_

_"Hope deferred makes the heart sick,  
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."  
—_Proverbs 13:12 NIV

She discloses them taut**  
**Lower limbs  
For wealth she barely had  
For fraudulent rituals of love  
For deterioration

_**- Chartered Libertine -**_

No woman desires degradation  
Nor deserve such  
Yet she chants amen to whoredom  
For wealth she barely had  
(pauperism)  
For fraudulent rituals of love  
(pretentious intimacy)  
For deterioration  
(rancorous consequence)

Should a woman of dry options be blamed?

Mind 'twas you Jericho  
That has drawn her unto your wall  
A chance you withheld from her  
To rise from the pit  
A chance Jericho, a _chance_!  
To shut those brazen limbs  
Quivering  
For corruption

_**- Venality -**_

Kohl accentuated eyes  
Implore upon Orion's belt,  
Threatens to drain...  
"How long?"

Oh but those stars of Orion toil for nothing m'lady!  
Except  
Be hidden, betray themselves, and scintillate  
...They hold no answer for you

Come, speak m'lady  
What answers do you hold, for us?

"My name... is _Rahab_,  
A courtesan at your service.  
Just Rahab... a _rag doll_... for **_r e n t_**."

(Arag doll for rent?)

Derisive self-mockery  
Betrayed  
By those tears coercing to bleed...

Oh, but the woman is a sorceress!  
In a blink  
She freezes her tears  
Capping those opaque hazels  
Its life  
Secluded 'neath wintry solace...

She steels her soul  
For another charade

_**- Pivot -**_

Fingertips  
That grazed countless dorsums  
(For ribald performance)  
And palms  
That amassed silver and gold  
(From satisfied wights)  
Inclines to probe for congenial spots—  
A place to plant her venom  
Whenceher prey will fall  
Lost in a routine  
Of dipsandtwistsandturns  
Around and around  
'Tiltheworldmelttogether—  
An odious dance of decadence  
(The frail sisterhood's craft)

But those incarnadine hands  
DISMISSED  
By hands familiar  
But never felt—  
Her seduction feat, aborted

"Enough."  
Calm supremacy in his tone.

On her shoulders  
He place his hands—  
A touch exuding warmth,  
Bidding the life  
She tucked under ice  
"Your fa(it)h  
Is hard enough to res(is)t  
_My_ faithful one."

In a daze  
Overwhelmed  
Almost unraveled  
But, a woman of such air will breach--  
watch...  
It goes, slipping off her lips,  
Meaning not retain the query within...  
"Who a(r)e _yo(u)_  
To ad(d)ress _me  
__Your_ faithful one?"

He draws herby the window  
To observe the hills beyond  
Bathing in Diana's light  
Traversed  
By a pair of silhouettes on steeds

"I am HE who parted the Egyptian waters,  
One, I learned, you secretly revere."

Awed.

"Those riders are my men.  
They have come to claim what is theirs  
Judgment  
Will fall upon Jericho."

Blenched.

"Rahab...  
Come live with my people."

Ensnared by confused emotions.

"_He-discerns-much" _dance within her intellect  
Forcing her  
Forcing her to shut her eyes  
Toconceal those green-tinged browns  
And bringdown her canvas--  
Thecanvas of her aspirations  
A canvas alive with notions of hereafter,  
Aye,within that canvas she emerges  
As a woman garbed in _worth_

"Rahab?"

A smile  
A curtsy...  
She assents

(Hope clinging tightly in her heart  
Puctuating every heartbeat)

_**- Declaration -**_

Those now hopeful hazels wake  
Upon the cerulean sky  
Animated  
By a gossamer veil rolling by  
Rolling madly against the wind  
Roll it goes  
Farther on  
On and on—  
The silken fabric,  
As scarlet as her sins  
Woven for harlotry

Though it melts the soul to shame  
She dared not shove back  
Back to its tributaries  
The saline dews welling up  
Her heart singing a paean  
Solely  
For welkin and terra's lord

Her hands  
Now a cornucopia of glinting riches  
(Riches she amassed for believing  
Riches she needn't spread her legs for  
Riches, all of echt substance: hope, respect, trust)  
Lifts up to the halcyon skies and warbles:

_"A woman's worth  
God sees  
Past d(e)te(r)io(r)ation."_

A declaration mouthed  
By a courtesan reclaimed  
Atop Jericho's remains

**-**

_"A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul,"_  
—Proverbs 13:19 NIV


End file.
